The State Attorney General's Office has detected a "clear" increase in cases of sexual crimes in recent years. The Public Prosecutor's Report of 2018 presented on Monday at the opening ceremony of the judicial year includes a 23.2% increase in the procedures initiated for these crimes, reaching 18,986 last year.

"It is a fact of the greatest relevance," says the Prosecutor's Office, which warns that "a clear and steeply rising line has been consolidated in recent years." The rise occurs after last year's report reflected even greater growth. This is a "worrying upline," warns the Report presented by the attorney general, María José Segarra .

The Public Ministry explains that a "relevant" number of these crimes have minors as victims, are carried out "by people close to the victim" and are not isolated acts, "but repeated over appreciable periods of time." And it suggests a measure to reduce these cases: the installation of cameras in certain places. «The seriousness of certain complaints and the sensitivity of the environments in which the events occur (spaces for the custody or custody of minors for their care, education, training, etc.) could lead to normalize the adoption of video recording measures of spaces closed (offices, classrooms ...) ». Those recordings would deter the commission of the crime or facilitate the always problematic accreditation of the facts. And, the Prosecutor's Office adds, it would also prevent "certain people from being subjected to such lacerations as unfounded suspicions or accusations."

The Public Ministry also forecasts an increase in crimes before the planned legal reform that will reduce the age at which any sexual relationship is considered illegal: from the current 13 years to 10.

Defense of the action against 'La Manada'

The Report expressly mentions the most mediatic case of sexual crime. «The sentences handed down during 2018 in the so-called La Manada case invite us to reflect on the criminal norm, on its interpretation and practical application, on the informative treatment of this type of issues, and on the image that is transmitted from the Justice system when the decisions taken are so far removed from a major social sensitivity ».

The Public Prosecutor takes breast for the prosecution, which from the beginning accused of rape and resorted to the Supreme Court to obtain a harsher conviction for that crime. "The Prosecutor's Office has been up to par," he says, estimating that his actions serve to defend that Justice works. «Faced with an alleged delegitimization of the system that has been promoted from some sectors, the Prosecutor's Office considers that the use of legal springs is the best way to try to remedy the deficiencies that, if any, may have occurred.

The social reaction against events such as La Manada leads the Prosecutor's Office to point out that part of the rebound in cases of sexual crimes may be due to the fact that the victims have gained security when reporting their cases. «The media and social repercussion that certain procedures have had may have strengthened the victims by encouraging them to denounce when they feel supported by the public demonstrations of groups in repudiation of these crimes, so facts that previously would not have been denounced now are" , concludes the report.

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